FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TIDAL BASIN - PAGE 4

The elaborate needlepoint White House Christmas decorations that Barbara Bush unveiled last week are not without their bizarre touches. The needlepoint ornaments, figures and miniature constructions, which cover the main indoor White House Christmas tree as well as mantelpieces and tabletops in three of the public rooms on the main floor, include such homey touches as a village with a "Bush Hardware" store and a replica of a sleeping First Dog Millie....

Chicago's weather Sunday morning was nothing like the miserable winter that George Washington's soldiers endured at Valley Forge, but a comparison nevertheless seemed apt for an underdressed history buff named David Wendell. Wendell, who organized a tribute Sunday commemorating the 200th anniversary of Washington's death, stood shivering under a gray sky with a handful of Revolutionary War re-enactors at the entrance to Washington Park, 51st Street and King Drive. "This morning it's 35 degrees.

If the grass weren't brown on the National Mall and the Tidal Basin barren of blossoms, you might think spring had arrived in Washington. Suddenly, President Clinton, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and anyone else in the capital is ready to roll up their sleeves and get down to serious negotiations on a plan to balance the federal budget in seven years. Before the leaders met Friday, Gingrich said the budget standoff could be resolved in two or three days; Clinton said he'd be willing to work through the holiday weekend, and some of the notorious House Republican freshmen were calling for compromise.

As the summer travel season comes to a close, think about next year's options. Here are five ideas. 1. Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial, Washington. Plan a visit to our nation's capital and see the new memorial to the slain civil rights leader. After decades of planning, the memorial's dedication was delayed by the recent earthquake and hurricane. The ceremony had been scheduled to coincide with the 48th anniversary of King's “I Have a Dream” speech. The memorial, in the National Mall near the FDR Memorial and framing views of the Tidal Basin, is open to the public.

By Margaret Backenheimer, Special to Tribune Newspapers | July 23, 2011

August is summer's hottest vacation month, the perfect time to take in old-fashioned family fun at the Great New York State Fair or Maine's Skowhegan State Fair. Young and old alike can also enjoy magic in the summer skies at Atlantic City's "Thunder Over the Boardwalk" air show, a perennial favorite. Through Aug. 27: Rheingau Music Festival, near Frankfurt, Germany; 212-661-7200; rheingau-musik-festival.de. String quartets and a cappella singers reign over the Rhine. Aug. 3-7: Valdez Gold Rush Days, Valdez, Alaska, valdezgoldrushdays.org.

"And here is the famous town house coming up right here," exclaims an excited guide as the tour bus halts on a Capitol Hill street. "Anybody want to go up and touch it? It's a moment in history." The place belonged to Gary Hart, the one-time Democratic presidential front-runner whose overnight hospitality to part-time model Donna Rice was exposed last year by the Miami Herald. The disclosure ruined Hart's political career but ensured his lasting fame, at least for a while. "Now here is the famous alley in which Miami Herald reporters waited patiently for Donna to make her back door debut, so to speak," the guide says.

For inquiring minds that grow restless with the usual Washington tourist stops like the White House and Lincoln Memorial, a group of actors offers a lively alternative. "It's bus theater," says Rick London, who along with partner John Simmons created Scandal Tour. Offered twice Saturday afternoons, the tour uses actors playing prominent personalities and provides a satirical view of the shadier side of the nation's capital-former Sen. Gary Hart's notorious townhouse, for example-as well as the customary highlights of Washington.

Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt will be revealed in sculpture Wednesday as he was seldom seen in public: in a wheelchair. President Clinton is to dedicate the sculpture by Robert Graham as the new frontpiece of the 7-acre Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial alongside Washington's Tidal Basin. "This dedication represents a great victory for people with disabilities," said Alan Reich, president of the National Organization on Disability. "FDR's memorial finally will acknowledge his significant disability experience, which forged his leadership qualities--courage, determination and compassion--that enabled him to successfully lead the nation through the worst crises of the 20th Century."

Come spring, the population of Washington, D.C., splits into two species. There are the locals, who watch each other pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere on Sunday morning talk shows. And there are the tourists, who watch each other pump strollers up and down the Mall in frantic pursuit of blooming cherry trees and the city's almost inexhaustible supply of culture and history. Avoiding the suffocating number of the latter and the suffocating self-importance of the former is not easy.

On Veteran's Day, I walked with the strolling tourists underneath the still-leafy trees and across the vast stony plazas dedicated to the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In my house, FDR was a natural force, like gravity and time, so I naturally went to see this site and inspect his newest portrait -- a life-size bronze statue of a man in a fedora sitting in a wheelchair. One could almost look him in the eyes -- if they weren't covered by opaque bronze glasses. Yet after paying my respects, I turned away -- not to shun his frailty, but because he has so little to do with the man I feel I know.